Metal scaffold mountable on building wall



May 5, 1970 w. on M CALEB 3,510,097

METAL SCAFFOLD MOUNTABLE ON BUILDING WALL Filed Dec. 5. 1968 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 l/VVE/VTUR Nil/fam 0. McCa/eb BY Mei/M7 MOP/V575 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIJ May 5, 1970 w. o. M CALEB 3,510,097

METAL SCAFFOLD MOUNTABLE ON BUILDING WALL Filed Dec. 3, 1968 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 i INVNTOR W/'///bm 0. McCa/eb y W W MOB/V575 May 5, 1970 w. o. M CALEB METAL SCAFFOLD MOUNTABLE ON BUILDING WALL 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed Dec. 3, 1968 United States Patent 3,510,097 METAL SCAFFOLD MOUNTABLE 0N BUILDING WALL William 0.. McCaleb, Rte. 3, Fayette, Ala. 35555 Filed Dec. 3, 1968, Ser. No. 780,684 Int. Cl. E04g 3/10 U.S. Cl. 248243 2 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A scafford has a two part metal framework including a bracket and bracket support. The bracket support includes a long T-bar with welded flanges at the top arranged to form a rectangular hook which engages over the top of a building wall. The bracket is a triangular structure which is detachably bolted to the T-bar and extends outwardly of the building wall. The bracket has a flat horizontal top on which platform boards can be placed. A vertical toe plate at an outer corner of the bracket holds the platform boards on the bracket.

Heretofore in building brick veneer frame homes it has been necessary to erect scaffolds on wood frameworks resting on the ground. This has proven unsatisfactory in practice for many reasons among which may be stated the following:

(1) Much time, labor and material must be utilized in erecting a suitable wood scaffold.

(2) After use, the scaffold must be demolished and cannot be reused without extensive reconstruction.

(3) Since the ground is rarely perfectly horizontal, dry and hard at a building site, prior wood scaffolds have been subject to slippage, warping and breakage.

(4) Numerous accidents have been caused by faulty wood scaffolds.

(5) Prior conventional scaffolds interfere with work on the exterior of walls at which they are erected.

(6) Skilled costly carpenters must be employed to erect, rebuild and repair wood scaffolds.

(7) The time consumed by workers in erecting scaffolds takes them away from other necessary work, slows up construction and increases building costs.

The present invention is directed at avoiding all the difficulties and disadvantages above mentioned as well as numerous others encountered with conventional scaffolds by providing a quickly mountable, easily adjustable and quickly removable safe simple metal scaffold.

A complete scaffold assembly according to the present invention includes two or more metal frameworks which serve as platform supports. Each platform support has a long vertical rail with a hook at the top to engage over the top of a wall. The rail extends along the outside of the wall and is spaced slightly therefrom so work can proceed on the outside of the wall while the scaffold is in place. Detachably mounted at any desired elevation to the rail is a generally triangular bracket having a horizontal top on which platform boards can be placed. The two basic parts of the platform support have welded joints to insure rigidity and durability of the structure.

Various objects, features and advantages of the invention will become apparent upon reading the following specification together with the accompanying drawing forming a part thereof.

Referring to the drawing:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a scaffold assembly embodying the invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view of a scaffold assembly with two platform supports.

FIG. 3 is a horizontal cross-sectional view taken on line 3-3 of FIG. 2.

3,510,097 Patented May 5, 1970 Kid FIGS. 4, 5 and 6 are enlarged sectional views taken on lines 44, 5-5 and 66, respectively, of FIG. 2.

FIG. 7 is an enlarged perspective exploded view of parts of a scaffold assembly, parts being broken away.

Referring first to FIG. 1, there is shown a scaffold assembly 10 mounted on a vertical wall 12. The assembly 10 includes a plurality of horizontal platform boards 14 removably supported by two identical scaffold frameworks 20 spaced apart along the outer side 15 of the wall. Since the scaffold frameworks are alike only one need be described in detail.

Each scaffold framework 20 as clearly shown in FIGS. 1, 2, 6 and 7 includes a vertical T-shaped metal bar or rail 25 having a flat flange 26 which is disposed parallel to wall 12 and slightly spaced from side 15 by a distance D indicated in FIG. 2. Rail 25 has a vertical flange 28 integral with flange 26. Flange 28 extends outwardly perpendicular to flange 26 and to the vertical side 15 of the wall. Flange 28 has a plurality of spaced holes 30 for receiving bolts 32 and 33 to mount one or more platform brackets 40. At the top or upper end of rail 25 is a rectangular book 45. Hook 45 is formed by a horizontal plate 42 welded to the top of rail 25 and by a vertical plate 44 welded to the inner end of plate 42. Plate 44 is thus disposed parallel to flange 26 and depends from plate 42. A plate 46 is disposed in a vertical position and welded to both the top of plate 42 and the upper portion 44' of plate 44 to reinforce the entire hook structure and the welded joint 48 (see FIG. 7).

A metal plate 50 having a greater length than the width of flange 26 is welded to flange 26 near its bottom end. Plate 50 serves as a bearing member against wall 12 or rather against a wooden spacer 52 interposed between plate 50 and the outer side 15 of Wall 12. Spacer 52 can be nailed to Wall 12.

The metal bracket 40 which is detachably mounted to rail 25 has a generally triangular shape with a T-shaped top bar 34 (see FIG. 5). Bar 54 has a horizontal top flange 56 on which, rest one or more of platform boards 14. Under flange 56 and integral therewith is vertical flange 58. Welded to the outer end of bar 54 is a vertical plate 60 which extends above flange 56 to serve as a ledge or abutment for boards 14. Also welded to the outer end of bar 54 is another T-shaped bar 62. This bar inclines downwardly and inwardly toward bar 54. Welded to the lower inner end of upper flange 64 of bar 62 is a vertical bar 66 which completes the triangular shape of the bracket 40. Welded to the lower end of flange 68 which is integral with flange 64 and coplanar with flange 58 are two extension bars 70 having aligned holes 72 to receive bolt 33. Bars 70 are abutted to flange 26 on opposite sides of flange 28 at any desired hole 30. The spacing of holes 30 is such that bolt 32 can be inserted through holes 74 in two other extension bars 75 Welded to the inner end of flange 58 on opposite sides thereof. Bars 75 are disposed on opposite sides of flange 28 and bolt 32 is inserted through registering holes 30 and 74. Nuts 31 and 35 are detachably engaged on the bolts to secure the bracket 40 to the rail 25.

Although rails 25 in assembly 10 of FIG. 1 have only one bracket 40 on each rail, it will be apparent from FIG. 2 that two or more brackets can be mounted on a single rail. This makes it possible to change the boards 14 from one set of brackets to lower or higher ones quickly as work on the wall 12, gables and roof proceeds. The quickly removable bolts and nuts make it possible to change the elevation of the bracket 40 easily. The scaffold can be mounted on the wall of a building under construction after the wall has been lined and braced. Hook 45 will engage over the top of the wall as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.

It will be apparent from an inspection of the drawings that the present invention provides numerous advantages over prior ground supported wooden scaffolds. Among these advantages may be mentioned the following:

(1) The entire scaffold can be quickly assembled and mounted, time consuming, skilled labor is not required.

(2) The metal brackets can be quickly raised and lowered as required.

(3) The scaffold assembly will safely support the weight of several workers along with construction material.

(4) The framework 20 can be removed from a wall or mounted on a wall as an entire unit or the rail 25 and bracket 40 can be separately removed or installed.

(5) Since the scaffold hangs down from the top of the wall rather than extending up from the ground, the mounting of the scaffold is independent of slope of the ground and the condition of the ground.

(6) The spacing of the rails 25 from the Wall makes it possible to install sheathing and do other Work without having to reset the scaffold support.

(7) The brackets 40 can be raised close to the top of rail 25 so that workers can work on top of the wall without having to sit or stand on the wall as is sometimes required with conventional scaffolds.

(8) The scaffold assembly can be disassembled quickly by one man, skilled labor is not required.

(9) The disassembled scaffold can be transported easily as individual lightweight parts and requires a minimum space for transportation and storage.

(10) The parts of the scaffold can be reused over and over without loss of strength.

(11) Work can be done on the inside of the wall supporting the scaffold while the scaffold is still in place. This contrasts with some prior scaffolds which require supporting parts located at inner sides of the building Wall. 1

(12) Use of nails and wood in the scaffold framework is avoided which makes is unnecessary to pull nails for disassembly; waste of Wood is avoided; there is no wood splinters; and no wood breakage.

(13) Work on the building by all crafts is speeded up since the scaffold assembly is quickly installed and loss of building construction time is minimized.

(14) Due to improvements mentioned above, accidents to workers at the building site are minimized.

(15) Substantial money savings are realized due to the simplified construction and reusable parts of the scaffold assembly, also savings in insurance costs, savings due to reduced accident claims, etc.

What is claimed is:

1. A scaffold device for use in spaced relation in multiples for providing a support for a platform at one side of a wall, comprising a metal rail T-shaped in cross section throughout its length with a first long fiat flange disposable parallel to said side of the Wall, and a second long flat flange integral with and disposed perpendicular to one side of the first long flange, said second flange having spaced holes for receiving bolts; a rectangular hook integral with one end of the rail for engaging over the top of a Wall so that the rail is supported in vertical position at one side of the Wall; a quickly removable bracket attached to said rail at any one of a plurality of positions along the rail, said bracket having a generally triangular form with an upper horizontal first bar for supporting a platform, said bar being T-shaped in cross section for almost its entire length, a second bar secured at one end to one end of the first bar and extending downwardly at an acute angle to the first bar, said second bar being T-shaped in cross section for almost its entire length; a vertical, fiat third bar secured at opposite ends to the other ends of the first and second bars; apertured flat, spaced bracket extension members at said other ends of the first and second bars engageable by bolts on the rail at spaced holes therein; and upstanding plate at the one ends of the first and second bars for holding said platform on the bracket in a horizontal position; a flat bearing plate secured to the other side of the first flange for bearing against said side of the wall so that the rail is spaced from the Wall, said hook comprising a second plate disposed perpendicularly to said first flange at its upper end; a third plate disposed perpendicularly to said second plate to abut the other side of said Wall; and a fourth plate joined to the second and third plates to reinforce the joint therebetween.

2. A scaffold device as defined in claim 1, further comprising a second bracket having a generally triangular form With an upper horizontal fourth bar for supporting said platform; a fifth bar secured at one end to one end of the fourth bar and extending downwardly at an acute angle to the fourth bar, said fourth and fifth bars being T-shaped in cross section for substantially their entire lengths; a vertical, flat sixth bar secured at opposite ends to the other ends of the fourth and fifth bars; other apertured, flat spaced bracket extension members at other ends of the fourth and fifth bars engageable by other bolts on the rail at other spaced holes therein; and another upstanding plate at the joined ends of the fourth and fifth bars for holding said platform on the fourth bar when the platform is moved from the first bar.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,558,425 10/ 1925 Ye'tter 182-150 1,591,648 7/1926 Sittig 248-235 2,308,142 1/1943 Alloway 182-150 2,471,459 5/ 1949 Stich 248-235 2,577,979 12/ 195 1 Pierson 248-235 2,957,670 10/ 1960 Wendl -150 3,077,645 2/ 1963 Fleming 248-235 3,134,567 5/1964 Shoemaker 182-150 3,385,400 5/1968 Whitsett 182-150 FOREIGN PATENTS 322,857 7/ 1902 France.

REINALDO P. MACHADO, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 182-150 

